Friends of Maveric Heritage Ranch

Our conservation and breed preservation work would not be possible if not through the loving support and publicity from our friends. To learn more about the Friends of Maveric, check out the links below.

If you would like to be listed as a friend on Maveric’s web page, please contact us for further information.

From their web page:
Slow Food USA is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to supporting and celebrating the food traditions of North America through programs and activities dedicated to Taste Education, Defending Biodiversity and Building Food Communities. Slow Food USA believes that pleasure and quality in everyday life can be achieved by slowing down, respecting the convivial traditions of the table and celebrating the diversity of the earth’s bounty.Slow Food USA envisions a future food system that is based on the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice – in essence, a food system that is good, clean and fair. (see below) We seek to catalyze a broad cultural shift away from the destructive effects of an industrial food system and fast life; toward the regenerative cultural, social and economic benefits of a sustainable food system, regional food traditions, the pleasures of the table, and a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life.

Good: Naturally delicious food created with care from healthy plants and animals.

Clean: Grown and harvested with methods that have a positive impact on ecosystems and biodiversity.

Fair: Produced by people who are treated with dignity and justly compensated for their labor.

Slow Food has helped promote the preservation of rare and endangered livestock breeds by putting them on the table.

Slow Food makes its support of biodiversity real by promoting artisanal producers of quality products. Created in 1996, the Ark of Taste is a growing catalogue of foods that have been forgotten or marginalized and are at risk of disappearing completely. The Ark identifies over 500 animal breeds, fruit and vegetable varieties, prepared foods and specific dishes and offers a resource for those interested in sourcing and promoting quality foods.
The Ark of Taste aims to rediscover, catalog, describe and publicize forgotten flavors. It is a metaphorical recipient of excellent gastronomic products that are threatened by industrial standardization, hygiene laws, the regulations of large-scale distribution and environmental damage.

Ark products range from the Italian Valchiavenna goat to the American Navajo-Churro sheep, from the last indigenous Irish cattle breed, the Kerry, to a unique variety of Greek fava beans grown only on the island of Santorini. All are endangered products that have real economic viability and commercial potential.

The Slow Food USA Ark has been immeasurably supportive of the endangered hog breeds raised at Maveric. The mulefoot and guinea hog have both enjoyed Ark recognition for taste, quality and conservation needs.

From their web page:
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy is a clearing-house for information on livestock and genetic diversity.The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy protects genetic diversity in livestock and poultry species through the conservation and promotion of endangered breeds. These rare breeds are part of our national heritage and represent a unique piece of the earth’s bio-diversity. The loss of these breeds would impoverish agriculture and diminish the human spirit. We have inherited a rich variety of livestock breeds. For the sake of future generations we must work together to safeguard these treasures.

The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s programs include research on breed population size, distribution and genetic health; research on breed characteristics; gene banks to preserve genetic material from endangered breeds; rescues of threatened populations; education about genetic diversity and the role of livestock in sustainable agriculture; and technical support to a network of breeders, breed associations, and farmers.

The need for livestock conservation is urgent. Throughout agricultural history, each generation has taken its turn as steward of the genetic trust. Our generation is now in danger of bankrupting this trust and leaving little for the future. Each day, some breeds move closer to extinction. Each extinction reduces the diversity within the livestock species and the biodiversity of the Earth.

From their web page:
Eatwild.com is your source for safe, healthy, natural and nutritious grass-fed beef, lamb, goats, bison, poultry, pork and dairy products. This site has three goals: · To link consumers with local suppliers of all-natural, delicious, grass-fed products. ·To provide comprehensive, accurate information about the benefits of raising animals on pasture. ·To provide a marketplace for farmers who raise their livestock on pasture from birth to market and who actively promote the welfare of their animals and the health of the land.

AMHAR is the only active Mulefoot Hog registry in existence. Through their work, they promote the Mulefoot breed and educate the public about this endangered hog. For a complete list of Mulefoot breeders, news and photos, visit the AMHAR web page.

Local Harvest is an enormous and beautifully designed web page that helps people locate food that is grown in their area via sustainable and/or organic methods. Search this page for food grown in your area and connect with your local farmers.

No NAIS is a web page dedicated to educating the public about the harmful-even fatal-effects the National Animal Identification System will have on all farmers, homesteaders, animal and pet owners and consumers. The NAIS is set up to benefit factory farms and agribusinesses. Find out how you can help protect our American way of life and our right to raise animals and produce our own food. Visit NoNais.org today.

Have you ever eaten a meal rich with juices, flavors, and fragrances that have taken centuries to develop? A tender pear once planted in Thomas Jefferson’s orchards, an oily fish that built trade routes in the Northwest, a hot pepper that tells the story of Minorcan immigration to Florida-these are the stories of North American traditions that lie hidden within our foods. Yet many of these foods have been rapidly disappearing from our tables. In the United States alone, 63% of native American crop varieties have disappeared from cultivation since European arrival on this continent.

With these losses has come a decline in traditional ecological and culinary knowledge, and declines in the food rituals which link communities to place and cultural heritage. If these culinary delights persist only in our history books we will have lost an important cultural legacy and future generations will be deprived of the exquisite flavors found in these heritage foods.

There is and urgent need to maintain the incredible diversity of America’s edible plants, animals, and their food traditions because of the important ecological, gastronomical, cultural, and health benefits of biodiversity.

Pipestone Vet Clinic, in Pipestone, Minnesota is the source for all of our veterinary needs. Drs. Goelz, Schmitt and the rest of the wonderful vets and crew have always been open and willing to learn about rare breeds and the organic and alternative husbandry methods we use here at Maveric. Contact Pipestone Vet Clinic at www.pipevet.com for all you livestock and pet needs. We can’t say enough about how caring and skilled these folks are.

We are lifetime members of the Belted Galloway Society, an organization established to promote and preserve this incredible and outrageously beautiful breed of cattle. Visit them to learn more about Belties, their history in the US and view stunning pictures.

The Meatrix is an award winning film about the abuses that go on in factory farms. Find out more about how your food is produced and learn how and where to purchase food from sustainable farms. You will never look at meat, dairy products or eggs the same way after viewing this film.

Sustainable Table celebrates the sustainable food movement, educates consumers on food related issues and works to build community through food. Sustainable agriculture involves food production methods that are healthy, do not harm the environment, respect workers, are humane to animals, provide fair wages to farmers, and support farming communities. Rather than focusing on the problems, Sustainable Table promotes the positive shift toward local, small-scale sustainable farming. Visit their searchable web page which can help you locate locally and sustainably grown food.

The Land Stewardship Project’s mission is to foster an ethic of stewardship for farmland, to promote sustainable agriculture and to develop sustainable communities. Through their beginner Farmer program, people interested in becoming sustainable agriculture producers can receive assistance, training and counseling.

From their web page:
At Eating Fresh Publications, we believe small-scale, independent farmers in your region grow and raise the freshest, most flavorful food. If you haven’t yet made the connection between how your food tastes and how far it’s traveled, get ready to find out what some of the best chefs already know!

Eating Fresh Publications serves to connect home cooks, professional chefs, restaurateurs, food enthusiasts, and consumers to local agriculture and celebrating the taste, health, and community benefits of eating local, seasonal, pasture-raised and organic food.

The mission of SVF Foundation is to preserve germplasm (embryos, semen and genetic material) of rare and endangered breeds of livestock.

Rare breeds of livestock carry valuable and irreplaceable traits such as innate disease resistance, heat tolerance, parasite resistance and mothering ability qualities which may be needed at some time in the future. It is conceivable that a current popular breed may become jeopardized due to a shift in the factors that let to its predominant role, such as industry demand or infectious disease.

SVF Foundation, led by a Board of Trustees, is in collaboration with Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University to help protect the world’s food supply by preserving rare and endangered breeds of livestock. The efforts of SVF Foundation are to elevate the rare breeds conservation movement to a new level — the storing of germplasm in the frozen state for future use.

Visit the Sedgwick County Zoo and see American Guinea Hogs and other rare breeds. The SCZ has the largest collection of Heritage and endangered livestock breeds in the US!

Many of the breeds of livestock in the Children’s Farms are listed as rare by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC), an organization dedicated to the preservation of rare or heritage breeds of livestock. How can a cow be considered rare? After all you can see cows any day as you drive up and down the road, right? Actually, many of the breeds on exhibit in the Children’s Farms are more rare than some of the exotic animals we have in our care throughout the rest of the Zoo. These heritage breeds were once the basis for animal agriculture worldwide, but the shift in twentieth century agriculture from small, sustainable family farms to the high-number, high-production units we are familiar with today has removed many valuable breeds from service. Many have already become extinct. The surviving breeds represent a genetic treasure chest of resources for agriculture. It is important to save these rare breeds because if they disappear, it is no different than when a wild animal becomes extinct.

What’s on my food is a public awareness organization that clearly defines pesticides found in our food. You can easily look up a pesticide to see what harmful effects it has on humans, the environment, water, animals, birds, fish and Honey bees. You can also search by food to see what the common contaminants are.